Pros

Cons

None in particular.

Bottom Line

The Transcend DrivePro 520's overall build quality is solid and allows the driver to keep an eye on their passengers as well as the road.

Sept. 14, 2016Chris Fernando

Transcend recently announced its new DrivePro range of dashcams in the region, and we took out the DrivePro 520, priced at AED 828, for a spin on a long Eid weekend getaway. While there are many dashcams available on the market, very few can actually record decent videos and come packed with infrared LEDs to illuminate the car’s interior. The purpose of a dash cam is to record the interior of your car as well as the road ahead of you.

Many a times, the car's cabin will be dark at night and hence you need dashcams with infrared LEDs that can also record what's going on inside of the car's cabin. Transcend's new DrivePro 520 does just that. It also features a 1080p front camera and a 720p rear camera equipped with 4 infrared LEDs.

The DrivePro 520 can capture videos in full HD 1080P (1920 x 1080) format at a rate of 30 frames per second. It also comes with a wide 130° to 160° viewing angle and a large aperture lens. The 520 comes with a built-in 2.4-inch colour LCD screen that lets you review any recorded video at any time. Your recordings can also be copied to PCs and other devices through Transcend’s very own free-to-download DrivePro PC Tool for Windows.

The DrivePro 520 also comes with a built-in G-sensor which safely saves videos if any impact is detected. This means that the footage won't be overwritten by the camera’s loop recording feature. The emergency button on the 520 also allows you to activate emergency recording for situations which occur outside the car.

This feature lets you take photos while recording videos during an accident by removing the camera from the vehicle to capture collision damage on the spot. Doing this can help you in reporting accidents to the police or insurance companies.

The DrivePro 520 also comes with a GPS receiver that helps to locate where you are. It can also log GPS coordinates, time and date into the footage the camera generates. When it is combined with Transcends DrivePro Toolbox on your computer, you can see the entire journey with the help of GPS coordinates, date, time and speeds.

Quality of the video footage was quite good - both inside in the car and on-road footage. Transcend also bundles a class 10 32GB microSD card with the Drive Pro 520, which was a good decision. Overall, the DrivePro 520 is a very good dashcam that comes with a 2.4-inch screen along with Wi-Fi which helps in operating through smartphones or tablets wirelessly.

It is also extremely easy to install and there are adequate power cables to fit it. The Transcend DrivePro 520's overall build quality is solid and allows the driver to keep an eye on their passengers as well as the road.